Andrews University sophomore Luis Garibay is a 2010 American Chemical Society (ACS) Scholar. The scholarship was announced in August and carries an award of $5,000 per year. The scholarship is renewable through Garibay’s fourth year of college.

Garibay, a double major in chemistry and mathematics, is from Colorado but grew up in Chiapas, Mexico. This semester, he is taking the classic sophomore chemistry major crush: Organic Chemistry, Quantitative Analysis and Physics for Scientists & Engineers, along with Calculus III. Garibay also serves as the pastor of the Chemistry Club.

David Nowack, chair of the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, says, “This ACS Scholarship verifies the quality and diversity of students that are attracted to our chemistry and biochemistry program. We are proud of Luis for his outstanding commitment to academic excellence and grateful to God for Luis’ talents that will ultimately be used for the uplifting of humanity.”

Luis Garibay

ACS Scholarships are awarded to historically under-represented ethnicities in the chemical sciences on the basis of academic record, career objective, financial need, leadership ability, participation in school activities, and community service. In 2010, 133 ACS scholars were selected by a committee of 19 professional chemists from a variety of academic institutions and industries. This year’s list of ACS scholars includes students from leading universities including Harvard, Columbia, MIT, Cal Tech, Berkeley, Stanford, University of Michigan and University of Chicago. This year, only two ACS Scholars were selected from the state of Michigan: one from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and the other from Andrews University.

Garibay is the second Andrews student to receive this prestigious scholarship. In 2007, Nuvia Saucedo became the first Andrews University student to receive it. After her 2009 graduation from Andrews, Nuvia went to pursue graduate studies at the University of California, Riverside.

Garibay, who was humbled by receiving the scholarship, says, “Since I decided to come to Andrews, I knew that this institution was a great place to prepare me for a career in chemistry and for growing in my faith. This scholarship is an answer to my prayer for two things: money to afford attending Andrews since I do not have my parents’ support and secondly, that I would have an opportunity to help the Andrews University Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry become better known to other students and institutions around the world.”

In 1994, the ACS Scholars program was initiated with funding from the National Science Foundation. In 2010 the majority of funding came from various chemical industry sources including PPG Industries, Proctor & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, 3M, Dow Corning, DuPont, Xerox, AstraZeneca and Dow. The ACS administers the program, which has been recognized by a Presidential Award in 2001 and the Building Exemplary Systems for Training (BEST) initiative.